Improvement in shirt-bosoms



1.6. COOMBS.

Shirt-Bosnmf Patented Aug. 10,1875.

Fig.4.

Jan/ 616007225;

N, PETERS, PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHER, WASHINGTON. D C.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN C. COOMBS, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT lN SHIRT-BOSOMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No, 166.589, dated August 10, 1875; application filed' April 5, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN G. OooMBs, of Boston, of the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Shirt-Bosoms; and do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification and represented in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure l is a front elevation, and Figs. '2 and 3. transverse sections, of a shirt-bosom made on my improved plan. Fig. 4 is a front view, with the lower portions of its plaits turned aside in order to exhibit what I ter the thinning out.

In Figs. 2 and 3 the plaits and folds are necessarily shown as opened apart, in order to exhibit them more clearly, their lines of sewing, or where they are stitched together, being denoted by cross-lines a b c d e f in Fig. 2, and a, b, c, d, e, andf in Fig. 3, each of the stitchings being made so as to draw closely together the layers or folds through which it may go.

My improved construction of shirt-bosom enables me to strengthen and stiffen the upper part of the front or bosom, where it is most liable to wrinkle or tumble, and to break or wear out, while in use, and I make the lower portion of the frontor bosom thinner than the rest, so that when the'front or bosom is in use such lower part, being more pliable, will usually wrinkle or tumble rather than the upper part, and thereby leave such upper portion smooth. In my said shirt-bosom the. middle or central plait is detached at or near one edge from the part or parts back of it, whereby the whole front has the appearance of what is termed by shirt-makers an open front.

In carrying out my invention I combine, with the main or front plaits, certain strengthening-pieces, sewed to their backs, and extended therefrom to the next adjacent folds or plaits. These strengthening-pieces are shown at G G in Fig. 2, in which A and B exhibit two pieces of cloth folded or plaited and laid together in manneras represented. Each strip or piece 0 of cloth is sewed to the back portion a: of a plait or plaits, A B, and goes between such plait and the rear portion of the piece B or A, and is fastened thereto, as

From the above it will be seen that the back of each front plait, except the middle or central one, becomes connected at or near the middle of its back portion by means of a stay or connection strip, 0, with the part or portions overlapped by it, whereby a very strong bosom is made, with its middle plait detached along one edge, so as to have the appearance of a fly, or give to the shirt-bosom that of an open front.

In thinning out the bosom so made I do not extend the stay-pieces entirely down to the lower end of the bosom, but terminate I them at a suitable distance therefrom, as shown at y g in Fig. 4, and, if necessary, remove a portion of the fold in rear of the middle plait; or I remove in rear of the plaits a portion of the back D, or, in other words, extend such back partially, instead of wholly, down to the bottom of the shirt front or bosom, thereby making the bosom thinner from its lower edge for about one-fourth or a fifth of its length than it is for the remainder thereof, but which feature I do not claim, broadly.

In constructing an open front I use the stiffening and strengthening pieces the same as in the whole front, and also thin out the lower portion, in manner as hereinbefore explained.

I do not claim a shirt-bosom having its plaits, where they meet, re-enforced or strengthened by narrow strips of cloth arranged with and connected to the plaits and parts adjacent, as shown in the United States Patent No. 120,462, which does not exhibit strengthening-strips fastened to the back fold of each plait at or near its middle, and arranged between and so as to be entirely covered by the folds or the plaits and back, as in my shirt-bosom. Nor do I claim a shirt-bosom re-enforced where the plaits meet by strips of cloth extending from the outer seam of one plait across the opening between the two plaits, and to the outer seam of the other plait, all being as shown in the United States Patent No. 153,564. Nor do I claim a shirt-bosom having a stiffening reduced in width at or near its lower end, all as shown and described in the United States Patent No. 136,771, as the thinning out..of the bosom is accomplished by me in a different way-viz.,by terminating the stay-pieces O G at the necessary distance from the lower end of the bosom, instead of carrying them, or either of them, entirely down to such edge.

What I claim as my invention is as follows, v1z:

1. A shirt front or bosom having strengthening or stiffening pieces 0 0 arranged vand connected with its plaits at or about the middles of the back folds thereof, as shown at f and c, Fig. 2, and with the parts next to or in rear thereof, all substantially as described.

2. A whole or closed front shirt-bosom, having its middle or central plait G attached at or near one of its side edges only to its backing, or part in rear of said plait,'as at b, and the other edge stitched through and throughon itself, as atf. V V

3. A shirt front or bosom having the middle or central plait 0 attached at or near one edge only to the part or parts in rear of said plait, and also having its other plaits connected at or near their middle s, or those of their back folds, by stay-pieces'O O, to the parts in rear of them, all being substantially as represented and described.

4. A shirt-bosom constructed essentially as above described and claimed, and being, besides, thinned out at its lower part, or from its lower edge upward for a part of its length, substantially in the manner described and shown, and for the purpose set forth.

v JOHN G. GOOMBS. Witnesses:

R. H. EDDY, J. R. SNOW. 

